
This is exactly what I was looking for since Airbnb came out. It's just too expensive to stay somewhere for more than a vacation through Airbnb. Really looking forward to see where this goes
So excited for Orca to go live! What you're building resonates with me from when I was traveling around every month, but seems actually even more practical for now since I can really feel like a local in each city I choose to live in.
This is great, we nomads need more options in this space. AirBnB has gotten too expensive and inflexible for long-term rentals & local contracts can be quite shady. Love to see platform that has the security baked in with convenience and good pricing. We used a similar new platform a little while ago with some issues (happy to share my experience if that'd be helpful) — great to see an alternative! Are you proper live? Can I make a booking — particularly looking at SE asia next ;)
Orca is awesome. I'm a member and have stayed in listings produced by Orca. I got to use the platform when searching for a place to stay in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I had such a rough time finding decent spots - didn't know if I could trust the reviews, if the host was actually good, if it was worth the price, etc. etc. When I booked through Orca, my experience couldn't have been better. The way they curate their listings actually makes it feel as though a friend is giving me a trustworthy recommendation, rather than relying on reviews from people I hardly know online. The team assisted me in every step of the rental (I had it for 5 weeks I believe) and consistently checked in to make sure my stay was exactly what I was looking for. Sick to see Orca getting recognition for their great product.
Love it, @devansood! We need more alternatives to the traditional lease (and to Airbnb.) Really interested to see which destinations and locations people favor when they can weigh other factors besides proximity to their job. Have you had any members who travel with pets? and do you forsee remote employers basing salaries on employee's actual location rather than company location in the future? I've heard of this happening (I.E. SF employee moves to Boise and gets a salary cut) but don't have any experience with it in practice.
Really loved the idea behind Orca Pass!! This is making the life of remote workers super easy in terms of stays. Congratulations on the launch @devansood
I grew up in Tulsa, OK and had not lived outside of Oklahoma for more than a month for 25 years.. It was finally time to see new things and journey up to SF for a few months but I knew absolutely 0 people there and looking for flexible housing was a nightmare. This is going to change the way we think about housing!
Not a remote worker, but I moved 3 times in the last 5 years. Looking back, I can see how your product could have made my life easier. I faced two big challenges: (1) - I was hesitant to sign a long term lease because i wasn't sure if the new property and location would be good enough. Therefore, every time I moved to a new city, I first stayed in a temporary accommodation for 2-3 months to explore the new city and local market. If I knew I could change my apartment any time if I didn't like something, that would make my life easier. (2) - when I moved from London to New York I didn't have any credit history in the US, so it was hard for me to rent an apartment here without paying a huge amount of money to guarantors, even though I had a good stable job in a reputable big tech company and great credit history in the UK. Sounds like your product has potential to solve both these problems. If you decide to target audience like me at some point, you may try partnering with big tech companies when/if they open scaled hiring in London again. Before covid these companies used to hire lots of people from all over the world in their London office, many of these people were hoping to stay in London for about a year or two and then move to the US after becoming eligible for the L1 visa. If you tell these folks that your product solves the problem (1) immediately and helps avoid the problem (2) in the future when they move to the US, I believe this could be a good value proposition. Good luck, and congrats with the launch!
@devansood Congrats on bringing Orca to the PH community, I have stayed at one of Orca's listings at Playa Del Carmen, Mexico and the place is great, Orca team definitely put a lot of thought into selecting listings for remote workers. Can't wait to see Orca helping a lot more digital nomads very soon. All the very Best.
Hi Team, congrats on the launch. Idea of renting apartment is old. But the improved idea of hand-picked apartments for remote work is interesting and looks very actual in a modern life. Questions: 1) Are you responsible for the quests living or the owner of the apartment? 2) Payment for the apartment directly goes to the owners? 3) Your monetization model is the payment from customers or also the commission from the apart owners? I like your product. I understand that the hardest part in it - is not a develop a website but always expand the network with the apart.owners to provide really huge choise. My upvote to you